Friday, September 14, 2007

Kyodai Rotating Sushi Bar

I was up in Towson the other day, and needed some sustenance. I stopped in the Kyodai Rotating Sushi Bar, in the Towson Commons building. It is VERY easy to spend and spend and spend here. It's like a typical rotating sushi bar in Japan: dishes of freshly-made sushi, sashimi and rolls rotate around on a conveyor belt, and customers take what they want. You pay based on the color of the plate. Here, there are three levels of plates: $2.25, $3.99 and $5.50 per plate. The code is very easily placed in front of you so you know exactly what you're getting yourself into unless you have a pretty bad grasp of math.

Fortunately for me, the temptation was reduced by the lunch special I ordered that I didn't even know they offered! I got the chicken tempura plate ($7), which comes with lots of tempura broccoli, sweet potato, onion and green beans, and a mound of sticky rice and a bowl of tempura sauce to boot. It came with an average miso soup which I got out of the way quickly. The tempura plate, however, was quite good, hot and filling. It was ridiculously filling and I could not finish all the chicken (never had tempura chicken before, and it's pretty juicy and good).

In addition to that I took one of those plates - this was before I got the massive plate o' tempura - of some kind of nondescript roll that was kind of falling apart. It was the cheapest of the plates, and as bits kept falling back onto the plate I could see why. Should've stuck with the tempura. But most of their rotating sushi is pretty good; I think I just got a dud plate.

Total cost: a surprisingly cheap $9, about as cheap as I've ever paid at a Japanese restaurant. With tax it came to $11. Mind you though: had I not been so stuffed it could have easily cost much more.

Kyodai Rotating Sushi Bar on Urbanspoon

6 comments:

Dan said...

Kyodai is one of my favorite places in the area. Tony, the guy who runs the place, is a friendly, charming fellow who knows how to keep the customer happy but is never intrusive. As for the sushi, you need to try their ultimate tuna roll, the crab and avocado roll, their version of the dynamite/volcano roll, and there's another one with tempura shrimp that has the outside rolled in panko and then it's topped with a spicy cream sauce. My mouth's watering just thinking about it.

On the raw side look for the hollowed out avocado shell filled with chunks of raw, marinated tuna.

When my wife and I got there we're lucky to get out without dropping at least $50 plus tip. It's my favorite sushi place in the area.

John said...

Avocado filled with raw marinated tuna? Panko, cream and tempura shrimp?? Sweet Amaterasu, I must get back there!!!

Dan said...

The panko and tempura shrimp roll is my wife's favorite. She'll get two or three plates of it while we're there. As much as I like San Sushi and San Sushi Too, I like being able to walk into a place, plop myself down, order a beer and start stuffing sushi in me! My buddy has been to a place in British Columbia that's the same concept but the plates come around on little boats floating in a stream!

John said...

Well now, this sounds like a reason to visit BC. Was this Vancouver? This place sounds too cool.

Meghan said...

ive always wanted to go here....im convinced!

Laura said...

i know this is an old post - i came across it while looking up the address for a coworker - but i have to add: I LOVE THIS PLACE. if you go frequently enough Tony makes a point to get to know you, and he's been known to have favorites ready for regular customers. the hamachi they serve is consistently better than the hamachi i've had elsewhere in Towson. Tony explained that he makes a point to serve only the best part of the filets they get in from their distributor, which i wish i could say was the case with Sushi Hana.

in the 5 years i've patronized this establishment, i've never had a bad meal, and i've never had subpar service. Tony has even opened up early when I happened to walk by to check the hours.

regarding good rolls to try, if you like spicy tuna give the John roll a go. it's spicy tuna wrapped in tempura batter and fried, then topped with real crab mixed with tobiko and a little spicy mayo. salmon imperial is also fantastic - it's surimi mixed with spicy tuna and tobiko, surrounded by salmon, then topped with eel sauce and cooked in the oven for a bit. the pieces are large and you only get three to a plate, but it's tasty and FILLING.